1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal element. Further, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing the liquid crystal element.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, liquid crystal has been applied to a variety of devices; in particular, a liquid crystal display device (liquid crystal display) having such advantages as thinness and lightness has been used for displays in a wide range of fields.
For a larger and higher-resolution display screen, shorter response time of liquid crystal has been required, and development thereof has been advanced (for example, see Patent Document 1).
As a display mode using a liquid crystal capable of quick response to an input signal, there is a display mode using a structure body containing a liquid crystal exhibiting a blue phase (e.g., a polymer-stabilized liquid crystal). The mode using a liquid crystal exhibiting a blue phase achieves quick response to an input signal, does not require an alignment film, and provides a wide viewing angle, and thus has been developed more actively for practical use (for example, see Patent Document 2).
It is said that a blue phase liquid crystal is provided with a high-order three-dimensional lattice structure which is different from that of a nematic liquid crystal, and the space in the lattice of a blue phase can be changed by controlling the concentration of a chiral material added. In a blue phase material interposed between substrates having a light-transmitting property with respect to visible light, a phenomenon in which visible light is diffracted by the lattice structure of the blue phase can be seen with the naked eyes.
For example, in a conventional blue phase, about two kinds of tile-shaped regions exhibiting different colors can be seen with a microscope. The diameter of each region is typically 20 μm to 40 μm, and the regions are irregularly arranged. Such a state is also called platelet texture (Non-Patent Document 1).
The color of each region is derived from the space in the lattice structure with respect to the observation side. The regions exhibiting about two colors are observed, which means that two different regions are mixed and that the orientation plane of the lattice structure in one of the regions, which is oriented to the observation side, is different from the orientation plane of the lattice structure in the other of the regions, which is oriented to the observation side. That is, the platelet texture is constituted by about two kinds of regions with different orientation states.